A Different Team Seven
by Concealed Convict
Summary: What if one small change was made to the formation of Team Seven? What if Ino was put on the team instead of Sakura? Rating subject to change, but currently there for language.


I don't own Naruto, and almost certainly never will, so sorry if I forget to add a disclaimer to every chapter. It doesn't mean I've gained ownership, just that I'm forgetful, or lazy.

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A Different Team Seven

Concealed Convict

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Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from the pictures arranged on the table he was standing over and let his gaze wander round the room, making sure that everybody needed was present. He resisted the temptation to show any surprise on his face when he noticed all the potential jounin instructors and academy teachers were actually there, even Hatake Kakashi was slouched over near the entrance, and the meeting wasn't scheduled to begin for another five minutes.

"I suppose we can start now then," he said quietly, almost muttering to himself. He placed his pipe into his mouth, took a slow inhale and straightened up. "Right, first things first: does anyone have any requests for a possible genin they'd want on their team?"

"I do," said Kakashi from the back of the room. "I want Uzumaki Naruto." His comment drew some shocked mutters from the people assembled. The thought on their minds was obvious. Why would he want the dead-last prankster demon-host? Nobody voiced it though. Instead, Sarutobi lifted the picture of the young blond boy from the desk and stared down at it. He gave it a few shakes, acting as if he was drying it off, before nodding his head once.

"You know you'll also be taking on Uchiha Sasuke?" he questioned. "Not only are you the only person with the Sharingan left in the village, but it's also tradition for the top and bottom people from the academy to be put in the same team."

"I know," Kakashi replied, and took a few steps further into the room. "I also know that, typically, I'd be given the top kunoichi as well, which, this year, is Haruno Sakura."

The Hokage lifted the other two pictures. One showed a young boy with dark hair and eyes, with a solemn expression on his face. The other showed a girl with pink hair and a wide smile. "Does anyone have any objections to this being the basis for one of this years teams?" he asked the room.

Silence reigned for a few seconds until there was a cough from the aged Hokage's right, the side opposite the entrance to the room.

"With respect, Hokage-sama," started Umino Iruka as every eye in the room turned in his direction, "I would like to give my input on this matter." Sarutobi simply nodded in his direction. "This might, usually, be a good idea – the strengths of the so-called Rookie-of-the-Year balanced out by the dead-last – but this year, that team has the potential to be a lot stronger than the rest."

The muttering started up again as people turned to their neighbours. Was he seriously suggesting that the last Uchiha in Konoha was so good that the teams wouldn't be balanced even if he was paired with someone who'd gotten this far due to luck alone? Sarutobi took another drag on his pipe, letting the smoke infuse his lungs and spread its heat for a second before he exhaled. "Explain."

Iruka shifted uncomfortably, raising his right hand to his left elbow. Even though he was a teacher, he wasn't used to being put on the spot, and in front of the Hokage no less. "Sasuke is top of the class, there's no doubt about that. He's good for an academy graduate," he began, "but pairing him with the other two would put the other teams at a severe disadvantage." The Hokage nodded, that much was understood, and didn't explain why he should break from tradition.

"Sakura is also, obviously, very intelligent," Iruka continued. "If you look at any written exam, she's top. She's pretty much aced all of them." Iruka paused and looked up at the Hokage, who was staring at him. "Her attitude towards Naruto, though, is particularly bad. A few of the others in the class may also be enamoured with Sasuke, but that shouldn't cause too much of a problem. She regularly hits Naruto."

Once again, the Hokage nodded in agreement, but this still wasn't enough to make him change. "Her attitude will be forced to adjust though, and I still see no reason for me to change anything."

Iruka bowed his head slightly, showing his understanding. "It's not just that, though," he stated. "It's that whenever she hits Naruto, she also infuses chakra into the punch. If she keeps this up, and gains even slightly larger reserves, she'll be hitting as hard as Tsunade in a year or two, and her physical scores don't take this into account."

A few people in the room had wide eyes after that declaration. It was well know that Tsunade hit hard. The Hokage merely blinked once. "That still doesn't explain why we shouldn't put these three together on a team," he observed.

Iruka nodded once again. "Yes," he agreed, "but Naruto is possibly the genin this year who's displayed the most potential." Iruka heard people murmur, and continued before someone could object to his statement. "His education was actively sabotaged for years by a couple of my co-workers, who wouldn't lower themselves to teach the demon-brat, yet he still passed the academy. But that's not my main point; he's already displaying skills far beyond the average genin, or even a lot of chuunin. He learned how to use shadow clones in an hour; he's managed to avoid ANBU squads when they're actively looking for them after he's stolen something from, apparently, the most secure location in this village, and his henge is solid!"

The room was silent. Having such skill was rare, even among the jounin in the room. For a genin to be capable of a solid henge was unheard of. Asuma was the first to react, taking a deep inhale with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. "Shit," he summarised.

"Indeed," agreed the older Sarutobi. "So, we have the last loyal Uchiha, the second Tsunade and a genin with skills of a jounin and no idea how good he is on the one team. This might need a bit of a shuffle, if only to balance them out until they start getting promotions. Do we have any other possible candidates for that squad Iruka?"

"Judging by the way teams are put together – usually with at least one kunoichi – the list of possibilities isn't very long. You're going to run into trouble if you put most of the ones from a civilian family on there. There's too much hate for Naruto. Although Sakura beats him, she's not going to go too far and seriously injure him, or be seriously injured by him. That's far too likely with a lot of the others. Really, the only ones in contention would be Hyuuga Hinata and Yamanaka Ino."

"I want Hinata on my team," declared Kurenai quickly, adding "Hokage-sama" when she realised she'd spoken out.

"Very well," said the Hokage. "What about the Yamanaka?"

"I thought the plan was to keep the whole Ino-Shika-Cho thing going," mentioned Shiranui Genma, speaking round the senbon in his mouth.

"That was the plan," acknowledged the Hokage, "but there's no point keeping it together if it'll be at a disadvantage, just because a previous team worked well." The Hokage waited, seeing if anyone else in the room would have any input on the matter. "Iruka, what do you think?" he questioned after a few seconds.

Iruka paused, thinking about his answer. "Honestly, it'd probably work better. She's a good choice. Like a lot of the rest of the class, she has great potential, but she doesn't show an extreme amount of innate talent at the minute, apart from her clan jutsu. Putting her on that team doesn't instantly give the other teams a disadvantage, although it could do if she was motivated to work, as proved by her scores. She has the same infatuation with Sasuke as most of her female peers, but I don't think I've seen much, if any, antagonism to Naruto. And, if you were to put Sakura into a team with Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru, you'd still have beginnings of a great squad, with Shikamaru supporting a couple of big hitters."

Sarutobi seemed to think for a second. "It's decided then, Hatake Kakashi will lead a genin team comprised of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Yamanaka Ino. Any preference over what number your team is, or will seven do in the hope that this team is lucky enough to be the one which finally passes your exam?"

Kakashi and some of the other jounin chuckled. His reputation for failing his genin teams was started to spread. "Maa, as long as we're not number four or nine, they'll have as much of a chance as the others."

Sarutobi nodded, and moved three photos on his desk to one side, piling them on top of each other, and making a quick note of their names. "Then it looks like another team will be Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji and Haruno Sakura," he stated. "Are there any objections to this team, or is there someone who'd like to volunteer to be their instructor?"

With one team already sorted, and what might have been the most contentious one, it looked like they might not be gathered as late as the Hokage had presumed. He allowed his mind to wander briefly as his jounin debated the merits of this possible squad, quickly noticing Kakashi lean back against the wall, with an almost unnoticeable air of smugness about him. The Hokage could only narrow his eyes in jealousy as the masked jounin reached into a pocket and pulled out a small orange book which he proceeded to read.

ADT7

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Naruto was waiting impatiently for his jounin instructor to show up. The man was already a couple of hours late. Everyone else had left the classroom ages ago! Naruto wasn't going to let him just get away with it. He knew he'd already done his 'last prank,' aiming to go out on a high, but he could, and would, carry out a few more, smaller pranks when the time called for it, and this situation was practically begging for retribution. Not to be discouraged by a lack of materials on hand, Naruto decided to get his payback properly at a later time, but he'd make do with what he had access to then.

He made his way to the front of the room and started rummaging through the drawers of the desk, hoping to find something useful. The other members of the newly formed Team Seven looked on, more out of boredom than any real interest. Ino had eventually given up trying to persuade Sasuke into a conversation, and the two had sat quietly for the past hour. Ino had started and stopped drumming her fingers against the desk half a dozen times, but Sasuke had been unmoving almost since he'd entered the room that morning.

As Naruto finished balancing a blackboard duster on top of the slightly tilted door, Ino spoke up. "I doubt our instructor is going to fall for that. He may be late, but he's still a jounin."

Naruto just shrugged. "Yeah," he agreed. "I don't think he will either, but I can't do much else at the minute. I'll get revenge properly later." He started making his way back to a seat as Ino started talking again, quieter than before but still loud enough for the other two to hear her.

"I really hope whoever it is doesn't fall for that anyway." Sasuke just grunted, apparently showing some sort of agreement as Ino propped her head up on her hand.

Quiet returned to the room, only broken by the occasional groan of a chair as someone shifted about, changing their sitting position in an attempt to stop pins and needles and the scratching of wood as Naruto doodled on the desk, seeming content to ignore the pieces of paper beside him.

"I'm bored!" Naruto loudly declared half an hour later as he stood up. "Where's our sensei?"

"How should we know, dobe?" replied Sasuke. The fact that he'd actually bothered speaking up showed just how annoyed he was getting as well.

"Who you calling a dobe, teme?" shouted Naruto, quickly pushing his chair back. He started making his way down the classroom towards Sasuke.

"I think it's obvious, and if you weren't such an idiot, you'd realise who I was calling a dobe," remarked Sasuke, "dobe."

Naruto leaned over the table, glaring at Sasuke until Ino raised a hand and placed it between the two boys. "Just leave it, Naruto," she said. "We're all getting annoyed, but there's no point fighting. You wouldn't even stand a chance anyway."

Naruto's eyes flicked in her direction as he snorted. "It's the teme here who wouldn't stand a chance. I'd kick his ass! Dattebayo!"

Sasuke stood up. "You wouldn't be able to touch me," he said quietly.

"I would be able to touch you!" responded Naruto hotly. "I'd do more than touch you!" He ignored Ino as she put the palm of her hand to her face, he seemed completely oblivious to what he'd just said. Sasuke just smirked and continued to stare Naruto down. "Don't believe me? Let's take this outside, teme." Sasuke nodded as Ino got out of her chair and placed herself between the two boys.

"Neither of you are going anywhere," she said sternly, "so stop being idiots. We have to wait here for our jounin instructor."

"He's not showing," announced Naruto loudly, walking towards the door.

"What if it's some sort of test?" asked Ino. "What if he's just waiting to see what we do? If we can't be patient, we might fail!" Her voice raised toward the end.

Naruto stopped walking and turned round. "Well, in that case, we probably shouldn't leave the room."

"Scared, dobe?" mocked Sasuke, still standing in front of his chair. "Have you realised that you wouldn't be able to beat me so now you're looking for a way out?"

The smirk on Sasuke's face was really getting on Naruto's nerves, but he forced a wide smile on his face. "Actually, I was going to suggest having our spar here," he said.

Sasuke's smirk grew a little wider. "Bring it." He sidestepped round Ino and made his way to the centre of the room, where Naruto was already standing. Ino hurriedly placed herself between the two again and tried holding up her hands to keep the two apart.

"Don't be such idiots!" she declared. "We're shinobi now, you shouldn't be acting like this!"

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through the room and lifted all the papers off the desks. They started swirling round the room, faster and faster, round in a circle that grew smaller around the trio of genin. As their view of the room was blocked, they quickly stopped arguing and stood back to back, looking outwards. Naruto felt his hair and clothes being blown about, and he knew the others would be the same. He strained his eyes trying to catch a glimpse of anything beyond the paper wall.

After a few seconds, the wind stopped just as suddenly as it came, and all the paper dropped to the floor. On the desk sat a man with the bottom half of his face masked, spiked hair and his forehead protector covering one eye. His one visible eye closed as he began to speak.

"You're my cute little genin team," he told them. "My first impression of you: I hate all three of you. Meet me on the roof in two minutes." A poof of smoke later and he disappeared.

The three genin stood quietly for a second.

"The windows are closed, and I didn't see him come in the door" pointed out Naruto as he raised a hand to the back of his head. "How'd he get in here?"

"I've no idea," commented Ino as Sasuke shrugged, "but at least he's finally here. I suppose we should get up to the roof as soon as possible and hope he doesn't leave us there for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, let's go!" cried Naruto as he ran toward the door. He threw open the door quickly, and blinked twice as he felt something hit his head. Sasuke snorted in amusement as Naruto kicked the blackboard duster in frustration, while Ino just sighed and shook her head.

Thankfully, their sensei was waiting for them on the roof. He started speaking as they followed each other out the door leading onto the roof. "Make yourself comfortable," he suggested. "Now, my second opinion of you: you're all idiots." He pointed at Naruto, "Especially you." Naruto spluttered, and tried to think of some way he could defend himself, but the man didn't give him a chance. "Now, introduce yourself," he said, "and, seeing as you seem so desperate to speak, you can go first Blondie."

Naruto took a breath. "Umm..," he stammered. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto?"

The group was silent for a question as the man looked pointedly at Naruto. "I'd hope so," he commented. "And that's a start, but I was really looking for a little more."

"Well then, why don't you go first?" asked Ino. "Tell us what you want to know, and introduce yourself at the same time."

Kakashi sighed. "Right, I'm Hatake Kakashi_. _I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes" he continued. "My dreams for the future… Hmm… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies." His eye closed, in the closest gesture to a smile while his mask was on. "That's what I want to know from you. Except, you know, with more detail. Blondie, go."

Naruto bit back a sigh and shrugged. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, especially Ichiraku ramen, and pulling pranks. I dislike waiting for ramen to cook, and the people who seem to hate me for no reason. My hobbies are pranking, and looking after my plants." Ino looked shocked at that, and quickly made a mental note to come back to that in the future. "And in the future," continued Naruto, "I'm gonna be Hokage! Dattebayo!"

"Okay, Blondie Two," Kakashi called to Ino, "you're up."

Ino scowled at the nickname, but didn't say anything about it. "Right, I'm Yamanaka Ino. I like..." Ino's gaze drifted towards Sasuke, but she shook her head and re-focused. "I like cheery tomatoes and pudding. I dislike bullies. My hobbies include shopping and helping out in my parents' shop. In the future, I want to be a renowned kunoichi." Again, she turned towards Sasuke as she spoke, but she resisted the temptation to say anything.

Kakashi nodded. "All right, two down. Just you left to go, broody."

Sasuke glowered at him. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like anything, and have too many dislikes to name. My hobby is training. My dream..." Sasuke paused briefly, before correcting himself. "No, my ambition, my path, is to kill someone and avenge my clan."

Kakashi frowned behind his mask. He'd need to tone Naruto down, get rid of the fan-girl attitude of Ino and try lighten Sasuke up. It didn't look like it'd be an easy task. That was assuming, of course, that they managed to pass his further test and weren't sent back to the academy to try again next year. He wiped the expression off his face, even though the three younger people in front of him couldn't see it, and spoke.

"That's a start anyway," he declared. "We'll leave it here for today, and pick up again tomorrow with your genin test -"

Naruto swiftly interrupted him. "What do you mean genin test tomorrow?" He tapped his forehead protector. "We're already genin, so why do we have another test?" Ino looked confused as well, and Sasuke just stared at him, obviously wanting an answer, but trying not to look too interested.

"Maa, that test you passed wasn't the real thing," Kakashi explained. "Or, that test you failed three times, in some cases." Naruto glared at him. "That was just to see if you had the potential. Tomorrow you'll face the real exam. Meet up at training ground seven at six thirty; we'll see if you have what it takes tomorrow." Kakashi allowed a dark smile to cross his face, causing his eye to close. "It should be a lot of fun."

He stood up and made his way to the edge of the roof before he turned back. "By the way, I wouldn't advise eating breakfast or you will throw up," he said, with far too much cheer which sent shivers down Team Seven's backs. Another poof of smoke, and he'd disappeared.

After a minute, the genin got to their feet and started to leave.

"Sasuke," Ino caught his attention. "Seeing as we're on a team and should probably get to know each other, do you want to go on a date?"

"No," replied Sasuke succinctly as he walked away, not even bothering to turn round and look at her. Ino seemed to deflate in on herself with the casual way Sasuke had dismissed her, before she drew herself together and followed slowly after him.

"Hey, Ino" started Naruto. "That's a fair point, so do you want to go get dinner somewhere?"

Ino turned round. "No, Naruto," she sighed. "I don't want to go on a date with you. Thanks though."

Naruto just shrugged. "Who said anything about a date?" he questioned as he walked quickly to get beside her and get to the stairs leading down. "We probably should get to know each other, and we can even see if Sasuke will join the two of us tomorrow."

The two strode beside each other in silence for a couple of steps before Ino blew a hair out of her face and turned to face Naruto with a smile. "Sure," she agreed. "Why not? It'll be our first Team Seven outing."

The pair were quiet again as they walked down the stairs, neither knowing quite what to say to the other. Ino eventually broke the silence as they exited the building. "Did I hear you correctly?" she asked. "Are you actually interested in flowers?" Naruto nodded.

"That's great!" exclaimed Ino. "My parents own a flower shop. You'll have to come round soon to check it out" Naruto smiled as he walked towards Ichiraku Ramen, and started conversing with his fellow blonde.

ADT7

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So, it's been a while (years) and this is my first foray into anything Naruto so be gentle.

I know it's a short first chapter/prologue, but it should get longer from here. That is if I continue this. It was more a drabble that demanded to be written when I should have been revising. But, if it gets enough attention, I could well be tempted to develop it into something more. But that means suggestions! On everything from possible pairings to possible skills or anything you might want to see. I do have a fairly good idea of what will happen if it continues, but it's nice to get input. Even if you just want Naruto to summon rabbits who wield scythes while he runs round with a water jutsu and a bow.

Also, I'm not entirely sure what people in the fandom actually like.

And I know I'll get stuff like honorifics wrong, so make sure to let me know about them. There are a few things I'd really like opinions on though. Like should I scale the ages a bit? Maybe up to about fifteen or sixteen when they graduate from the academy? Or should I just not go into it at all and let people believe they're whatever age they're comfortable with them being?

Anyway, thanks for reading

Please review

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